Wednesday, March 5, 2014

He’s in hiding because he knows too much, or so Mel Reynolds says

I
don’t doubt that there’s a stink surrounding the story of Mel Reynolds, the
one-time member of Congress who recently got deported from Zimbabwe after
managing to offend the government of that African nation.

REYNOLDS: The man who knows too much?

Then
again, being on the bad side of Robert Mugabe doesn’t take much to achieve.
That man seems to have a problem with anyone who won’t kowtow to him.

NOT
THAT THIS fact makes me feel much in the way of sympathy, since he seems
determined to continue his current saga in life.

For
it seems that when Zimbabwe officials transported him from the jail where he
had spent six days to their airport to get him out of the country, he didn’t
return to his native United States.

He
went to nearby South Africa – a nation that decades ago wouldn’t have let him
come anywhere nearby. But now, is the place where he claims to be in hiding
because he fears that a “secret Zimbabwean death squad” is trying to hunt him
down. He’s marked for assassination, or so he says.

Although
I wonder just how deep in hiding could he be if both WLS-TV AND the Associated
Press managed to track him down by telephone for interviews in which he told us
his life’s latest sob story.

REYNOLDS,
WHOSE CRIMINAL record in this country involves both state charges related to
being sexually involved with underage girls and federal charges related to his
tax returns, has turned himself into a self-described consultant who was
helping U.S. business interests to make connections in African nations.

Which
is why he supposedly was in Zimbabwe since back in November.

He
now says that his experiences have caused him to learn of U.S. officials,
including some from our very own Chicago, who are skirting their way around the
law – particularly since Mugabe doesn’t have the best record on international
issues.

Reynolds
now wants us to believe that the reason he got hit with criminal charges of
pornography possession in Zimbabwe is because he was threatening to expose
those people.

WHICH
COULD COST business and government officials serious money!

Hence,
the “death squads” that would turn Mel into a corpse. It all sounds so far over
the top – almost like something out of a James Bond film (at least one from the
Sean Connery era, the rest get just a bit too lame to pay much attention to).

Or
maybe it’s more like something from a “Get Smart” episode – it sounds more like
a Maxwell Smart caper than anything else, on account of all its inanity.

In
fact, about the only reason I give it any credence is the fact that the
pornography possession charge seemed too trumped up – and officials in Zimbabwe
were way too eager to dismiss it.

REYNOLDS
WAS CHARGED with a visa violation (it had expired) that was the reason he
ultimately got deported. The pornography charge supposedly was dismissed
because police did not get the consent of higher-ranking authorities before
making the arrest.

Which
may sound reasonable to someone whose legal sensibilities are U.S.-oriented.
Although since when Zimbabwe officials care about such sensibilities is the
real question.

A
pornography arrest was just the way to draw attention to a U.S. political
official whose lingering reputation was of getting aroused by the 16-year-old
in peach-colored panties.

Reynolds
isn’t wrong when he says that they used the most effective weapon they could
come up with to discredit anything he might have to say about business
interests in African nations. He may even be truthful in his statement to
WLS-TV that he essentially “bribed” Zimbabwe officials to deport – rather than
incarcerate – him.

ALTHOUGH
EVEN TAKING that into account, it just seems like Mel Reynolds has a knack for
walking into gaffes. And why his threats to expose what he knows about
corruption (a press conference to be done while in hiding, he says) likely won’t
be taken seriously.

Which
may well be why the Rhodes Scholar-turned-Congressman-turned-inmate never was
able to live up to the promise he showed early in life.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.